♪ >> we will reach the goal of liberating the black people of this country within our lifetime! >> viva! >> pelley: tonight, a man for a rebel, a prisoner, a president. nelson mandela is dead at 95. >> take your guns, your knives and throw them into the sea! >> pelley: a revolutionary who fought for liberty, an icon who embraced peace.

>> we are one country. we are one people. >> we will not likely see the likes of nelson mandela again. he gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they're guided by their hopes and not by their fears. >> he did something remarkable. he built a genuine multiracial democracy in south africa. >> pelley: he was an inspiration to all who cherish freedom. >> i cherish the ideal of a new south africa. >> the legacy of mandela is of forgiveness and reconciliation. >> today, we can proudly say we are all south africans. >> he is revered around the world. he is almost like a saint. >> pelley: for south africa, he was "madiba," the father of a

nation. >> africa! amandla! ( cheers ) ( national anthem plays ) captioning sponsored by cbs >> pelley: good evening. sunday in south africa will be a national day of prayer in honor of nelson mandela, a day to reflect on all that he did for his country and on the inspiration he was for freedom- loving people all over the world. ever since he died thursday evening at the age of 95, mourners both black and white have been gathering at his former home in soweto, celebrating the father of the new south africa who fought for the liberation of the black majority and then led a peaceful transition to a multiracial democracy as south africa's first black president.

nelson mandela is one of the towering figures of the 20th century, whose story will be told for centuries to come. it is a story that we will tell over the next hour, beginning with martha teichner, who reported from south africa during some of mandela's many years in prison and covered the day few thought would ever come. ( laughing ) >> we, all of us, the world needs nelson mandela! ♪ >> mandela must be free! ♪ >> teichner: i remember the earth pounding, like the

heartbeat of a nation springing to life. they rejoiced, a people finally daring to exhale, to celebrate the impossible actually coming true. ( cheers ) after being imprisoned for 27 years, nelson mandela greeted the world. >> i greet you all. in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all, amandla! >> viva! >> teichner: this was the man who had made history and challenged a world to confront itself. >> the demand in this country is for a nonracial society. >> teichner: mandela-- rebel, prisoner, leader, inspiration. >> africa, mayibuye!

>> teichner: when i first came to south africa in 1987, apartheid was the way of life. blacks had no vote, no power, no say. it was a brutal, racist system that in 1948 was made the law of the land. >> the laws were unjust laws, and they did not oblige obedience. >> teichner: archbishop desmond tutu remembers how it began, as mandela rose in the ranks of leadership of a civil rights group called the african national congress, the a.n.c. >> they were the revolutionaries of their day. they were the wild young men. >> teichner: former "time" magazine editor rick stengel spent countless hours in private conversation with mandela while collaborating on mandela's autobiography. >> mandela went to johannesburg as a young man and was treated

in the terrible way that young black men were treated in the 1950s. i think this had a huge effect on him. >> teichner: mandela was in the forefront of growing resistance by the a.n.c., which began to protest the hated laws requiring blacks to carry passes, restricting where they could go. then, a galvanizing moment caught the world's attention. on march 21, 1960, in sharpeville, the peaceful civil rights movement was pierced with bullets. ( gunfire ) walter cronkite reported. >> police mounted on tanks opened fire. 69 natives were killed, 176 wounded. most of the victims were shot in the back. >> teichner: it was against this blood-red backdrop that nelson mandela took up arms.

>> it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and non-violence against a government whose reply is only savage attacks. >> teichner: when the a.n.c. became a more radical movement, nelson mandela became a fugitive, and, in 1962, would be arrested in the johannesburg suburb of rivonia. he was charged with attempting to violently overthrow the government. what unfolded was a crucible known as "the rivonia trial." the climax of the rivonia trial was nelson mandela's speech from the dock. >> it's one of the great political statements, i think, in human history.

>> teichner: mandela was sentenced to life in prison. he was sent here to robben island, the alcatraz of south africa. >> this is where we broke stones using four-pound hammers, seated on slabs. >> teichner: political prisoner mac maharaj spent 12 years on robben island with nelson mandela. >> he had to hold his emotions tightly to himself. he could not divulge to the authorities a weakness in his armor. >> teichner: with each passing year, mandela's resolve sharpened. >> like a stiletto-- flexible, sharp, but pointed to the task. >> teichner: when nelson mandela was sent to prison in 1964, he left behind his wife, winnie,

and their two young daughters. >> it was just very poignant because he lost that whole side of his life. he never was able to really be a father to his children or a husband to winnie. that was, in some ways, one of the great tragedies of his life. >> teichner: in his absence, winnie took up the mantle of leadership and protest. >> amandla! >> amandla! >> teichner: by the '70s, the revolution that mandela had helped ignite had intensified, and this time it felt different. >> we had a new breed of children who were not going to be intimidated. >> teichner: in 1976, the township of soweto became their battleground and graveyard. 575 people were shot dead in the soweto uprising-- many of them,

children. over the next decade, government tactics would grow beyond brutal. there was the so-called trojan horse incident. soldiers, hidden in a truck, emerged and opened fire on civilians. it was murder in broad daylight. the image captured by cbs news shocked the world. still, the massacres continued for years.

there were countless innocent victims. finally, by the mid 1980s, the world had seen enough. the united states and other countries imposed economic sanctions against south africa, and mandela sensed the government was finally vulnerable. beginning in 1985, prisoner mandela secretly negotiated with the apartheid government what became a road map for a new south africa. he reached the masses of people through the voice of his daughter, zindzi. >> my father says, "your freedom and mine cannot be separated. i will return. amandla!"

>> we need nelson mandela. that is our leader. >> teichner: pressure to free mandela built in and outside south africa. >> free mandela, free mandela! >> teichner: and then, in february 1990, south african president f.w. de klerk made a historic announcement. >> the government has taken a firm decision to release mr. mandela unconditionally. >> teichner: a moment forever seared into our memory. after more than a quarter century behind bars, nelson mandela stepped into the light. >> amandla! >> teichner: mandela at 71 emerged looking not like a broken prisoner, but like a king. >> he had won.

but mandela is famous for his smile, but that smile is not there. and i believe he was deeply aware of the enormous challenge and responsibility that now lay on him. ♪ >> we will reach the goal of liberating the black people of this country within our lifetime. >> teichner: nelson mandela was free, but the fight for freedom was far from over. >> pelley: when we come back, "60 minutes'" bob simon reflects on mandela's journey from prisoner to president. honestly, i'm not looking for five-star treatment. i get times are tight. but it's hard to get any work done like this.

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( cheers ) >> simon: february, 1990: mandela was not only free, he was back on soweto, the cradle of the liberation struggle. this was his real homecoming. >> my return to soweto fills my heart with joy. ( cheers ) >> simon: the world watched, inspired by the words of a leader who vowed to carry on the fight that had been his life's work.

>> africa! amandla! >> simon: i was reporting that week from south africa. the ecstasy was contagious, but the walls of apartheid were still standing in the statutes and in the minds of the people. >> it gave whites a false sense of superiority, and blacks a false sense of inferiority. >> simon: andrew young, a former united nations ambassador and a colleague of martin luther king, saw that mandela was not interested in black supremacy. he wanted a colorblind society, a rainbow nation. >> mandela's effort was always to unite the country-- one nation without race where every citizen has its opportunity.

>> simon: but president f.w. de klerk's government surreptitiously fostered violence, both black and white, in an attempt to undermine mandela's dream of a society where all people would be equal. violence raged. women and children were not spared. >> our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. >> simon: mandela pleaded passionately for restraint. >> take your guns, your knives and throw them into the sea! >> mandela talked to me about the fact that south africa came much closer to a violent civil war than anybody realized. >> simon: and in a civil war, president de klerk realized the

white minority could stand to lose it all. in 1992, with the country threatened with chaos, he called for a national referendum. 68% of whites voted to end apartheid. >> today, we have closed the book on apartheid, and that chapter is finally closed. >> simon: it was a huge victory, but mandela knew there was at least one chapter left. >> i still cannot vote in my own country, and i cannot say that we have now bade goodbye to apartheid. >> simon: mandela reached out to his former enemies, working with president de klerk to forge a new constitution that would include black south africans. he wanted to abolish an odious system, not the men who ran it. >> to see nelson mandela and president de klerk together is

the essence of reconciliation. >> simon: congressman and civil rights leader john lewis. >> when people can come together and lay down the burden of hate, that's what counts. >> simon: 1993, mandela's greatest milestone. south africa passed a new constitution, guaranteeing blacks full rights as citizens. then, in what would have once seemed implausible, mandela and de klerk were both awarded the nobel prize for peace. >> there are very few people that deserve a nobel prize as much as mandela. >> simon: national elections were held. the man who had spent 27 years in prison was now a presidential candidate.

>> we are one country. we are one people. i cherish the idea of a new south africa. >> simon: april 26, 1994. it's difficult for anyone born in a democracy to so much as imagine the thrill of putting a ballot in a box. >> i slept with my i.d. under my pillow so that i musn't forget it. how long have we been waiting! >> i'm going to vote, for the first time, as a black man. >> it was amazing. to see hundreds and thousands of people who had never cast a vote

before waiting in long lines, people shouting for joy. that sense of happiness, that sense of freedom, that sense of liberation. >> for the people of south africa, this is indeed a joyous night for the human spirit. >> simon: there was no suspense election night. mandela won by a landslide, as everyone knew he would. ( applause ) >> it is you, the people, who are our true heroes. you have shown such a patient determination to reclaim the country and joy that we can loudly proclaim "free at last!" ( cheers and applause )

>> simon: as president, mandela immediately began to repair a country torn apart by decades of racial intolerance and violence. >> the time for the healing of the wounds has come. >> simon: he initiated the truth and reconciliation hearings. south africans, both black and white, were encouraged to admit crimes they had committed against one another. >> say "so help me, god." >> so help me, god. >> simon: in exchange, they would not be prosecuted. >> ( crying ) >> simon: mandela was convinced that it was necessary in order to build a new future. >> today, we can proudly say we are all south africans. ( cheers ) >> the legacy of mandela is of forgiveness and reconciliation.

>> at the end of the day, i feel that i have done very fruitful and productive work. >> the world needed a mandela. and it didn't matter whether you were rich or poor, his heart was open to you. >> he is revered around the world. he's almost like a saint. >> nobody has the human touch like mandela. he was just a real human being. for his son. a tablet? a laptop? which 'twas the right one?

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>> phillips: this kind of thing goes on all day and much of the night here outside the mandela home in johannesburg. when does a vigil of mourning become a kind of reverential street party? when nelson mandela dies. some have said the streets here would flow with tears, others feared they might flow with blood. but in the end, the reaction to his passing has been less grief and more celebration.

>> i have come to celebrate madiba's life. i am not mourning. >> phillips: maybe it's because mandela had been so ill and so frail and out of public life for so long that people were prepared for the end. but south africans have held their joyous vigil to honor the man and the legacy of what had been, not to mourn what had been taken away. >> all over the world, all over south africa, all over africa, he has just made such an impact. >> phillips: it had been a long year of watching his decline, in and out of hospital, one potentially fatal crisis after another. >> he remains critical but stable, responding to treatment. >> phillips: the hospital vigils that began in hope became a wait for the inevitable.

>> our nation has lost its greatest son. >> phillips: so, now, the candles burn and the respect takes a thousand forms. >> and south africans loved him, black and white. >> phillips: they dance and sing for the man who brought their nation out of darkness and then insisted that they all live in the light together. >> just seeing everyone here, it's just a reminder that we're going to be okay. >> don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. he lived, he lived. >> phillips: that south africa is a different world today is largely because of the man whose memory is being celebrated in this way. and it's hard not to think this is the way he would have wanted it. >> pelley: coming up, two south african film students share what they inherited from nelson mandela. but next, jazz greats wynton marsalis and south africa's hugh

masakela reveal how music became an instrument of change in the fight for freedom. my asthma's under control. i don't miss out... you sat out most of our game yesterday! asthma doesn't affect my job... you were out sick last week. my asthma doesn't bother my family... you coughed all through our date night! i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. what did you say? how about - every day? coping with asthma isn't controlling it.